Australian killed in Saudi attack

May 2, 2004 — 7.27pm

An Australian was among several people killed today when four gunmen opened fire at an oil contractor's office in Saudi Arabia before leading police on a bloody chase, dragging the body of one victim behind their car.

In Australia, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said one of those killed was Anthony Richard Mason, 57, from Western Australia.

A European diplomat said a second Australian was also killed in the attack, but had no further details.

A DFAT spokeswoman said the department had no information about a second Australian being killed in the attack.

The spokeswoman said an update on the incident was expected in the next few hours.

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After pursuing the attackers through the industrial city of Yanbu and engaging them in a shootout outside the Holiday Inn, police finally overpowered them on a downtown street, witnesses said. Officials said three attackers were killed at the scene, and the fourth died later from his wounds.

There was no word on the motivation behind the attack, but US officials had warned in recent weeks of possible attacks against foreigners in Saudi Arabia, an important US ally. A Saudi diplomat called the attack an "indiscriminate evil rampage".

The last attack that killed Americans in Saudi Arabia was in May 2003, when eight Americans were among 34 people killed in a series of coordinated suicide bombings in the capital, Riyadh. That attack and a November assault on a housing compound that killed 17 people were blamed on the al-Qaeda terror network.

Intelligence has in the past suggested al-Qaeda wanted to strike at Saudi oil interests, and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has called for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family and questioned its Islamic credentials.

"The kingdom will eliminate terrorism no matter how long it takes," Crown Prince Abdullah said in comments broadcast tonight on Saudi television.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement that the gunmen walked into the offices of a Saudi oil contractor this morning and "randomly shot at Saudi and foreign employees". The offices are across the street from a petrochemicals plant co-owned by Exxon Mobil and the Saudi company SABIC.

Saudi TV footage showed one victim lying in the bloody front seat of a sport utility vehicle, his leg dangling out an open door with a rifle nearby and several bullets on the floor. His identity was not known, but he appeared to be wearing a security officer's uniform.

The attackers tied the body of one of the victims to the back of a commandeered car before fleeing, according to one witness who, like all residents reached in Yanbu, spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Another witness said the gunmen engaged police in a shootout outside the Holiday Inn hotel, but nobody was hurt. They fled, and opened fire again in downtown Yanbu, 900km west of Riyadh.

"Security forces were able to kill three of them and injure and capture the fourth," the Interior Ministry said. A security official later said the fourth attacker died of his wounds.

In another, near-simultaneous attack in the city, a pipe bomb was thrown over a wall of Yanbu International School, causing minor damage and slightly injuring the school's custodian, according to the Overseas Security Advisory Council, which shares security information between the US government and the private sector.

"Staff and children had already been advised not to report to school that morning," said a warden's message posted at the US Embassy's website.

After the attacks, police moved in force to secure Yanbu's streets, with checkpoints throughout the city, one resident said. He said some of the Westerners involved in the oil industry in Yanbu were unable to reach their workplaces because of the heavy police presence.

The US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James Oberwetter, condemned the attacks and offered condolences to the families of the victims.

"The kind of horrific attacks that happened today in Yanbu must be condemned by all those who want to see peace and prosperity in the Middle East," Oberwetter said in a statement.

"The United States appreciates everything the Saudi authorities are doing to fight terrorism, including here in the kingdom."

"We will not be discouraged by this brutal incident in which innocent lives were lost - British, American and Australian as well as Saudi Arabian - and many people injured in an indiscriminate evil rampage," he said in London.

The two Americans killed were engineers for ABB-Lummus, the energy arm of multinational engineering company ABB. A British ABB employee, a British contractor and an Australian employee were also killed, spokesman Bjorn Edlund said from Zurich, Switzerland.

European diplomats also said a member of the Saudi national guard was killed. The US Embassy said in a warden's message that several Saudi security forces were "killed and wounded in their fight with the terrorists", but gave no numbers.

Abdullah said 25 people were wounded in the attack. Edlund said the wounded included two American ABB-Lummus employees, one of whom sustained critical wounds. Diplomats also said two Canadian citizens and a Saudi police captain were among the wounded.

Saudi Arabia relies heavily on six million expatriate workers, including about 30,000 Americans, to run its oil industry and other sectors.

Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil producer at about eight million barrels a day.

A significant disruption in operations or fears that Saudi energy installations are vulnerable could affect markets.

In the (northern) summer of 2002, Saudi officials arrested al-Qaeda sympathisers who tried to blow up Ras Tanura, a major Saudi oil terminal and refinery, and the pipelines that serve them.

The May 2003 housing compound attack was seen as a wake-up call to Saudis of the dangers of Islamic militants at home. Bin Laden was born and raised in the kingdom, but expelled in 1994 for agitating against the monarchy.